Fleet Design
About Fleets Fleet design drives Ship Design in that it determines the requirements for our ship designs. Depending on the architecture of the formation, the requirements of a ship's design is determined by its placement in the formation and therefore, its function. A standard fleet fills a 3x3 grid, each location on this grid is called a stack, allowing for 9 stacks of no more than 3,000 ships. Therefore, a full fleet consists of no more than 27,000 ships. Each stack is limited to a single design and you cannot mix ship designs on the same stack; they must be uniform. Adjacent stacks may be completely different ships, however. Within this formulation there are many possible architectural variations. Tactical considerations Most encounters in battle will be head-on, somewhat less on the flanks, and few on the rear. Given simple circumstances, an attack on a stack will not effect the stack behind it. However, technology research complicates things by enabling scattering damage. An adjacent stack can receive as much as 30% of the damage of the attacked stack via scattering damage. Offense The main factor in the firepower available to the fleet is the Effective Stack and that is controlled strictly by the hull type and the fleet Commander's rank. Details may be had via the Effective Stack page. Suffice it to say, the attack power of a stack is limited by this number. The standard values are: :: A fleet is not considered fully combat ready unless each stack is equal to its Effective Stack value. In the instance of Battleships, this means that each battleship stack has at least 900 ships in it. The percentage of Combat Readiness for each stack would be; :: Combat Readiness = Number of ships / Effective Stack *'Note:' Remember to include the bonuses given by a Star Commander in your Effective Stack value (there is no star bonus with Common Commanders). *'Note:' The game will not let you mix different ship designs in the same stack. 'Weapons types' There are only four general types of weapons in the game. #Do not mix weapons types in a ship. #Do not mix weapons types within a fleet. The above rules are obvious when you consider the different ranges of the weapons types. One weapon type or the other will never fire during a normal engagement. That said, one can mix different modules of the same weapons type to your hearts content, in-game. However, that still isn't wise. For maximum effect, ships should only mount identicle modules of the same weapon. 'Guns' :AKA Ballistic Weapons, augmented by Ballistics Science. These are weapons with short range, no Cool Down; basically, cannons and other artillery. 'Beams' :AKA Directional Weapons, augmented by Directional Science. These are weapons with medium range, 1-2? Cool Down; basically, lasers and other directed energy weapons. 'Missiles' :Missile Weapons, augmented by Missile Science are self-guided munitions with longer range, 3-4 Cool Down; basically, rockets and other self-guided munitions. 'Fighters' :AKA Ship-Based Weapons, augmented by Ship-Based Science. These are weapons with maximum range, high Cool Down; basically, fighters and remotely piloted vehicles (RPVs; Predator drones on steroids). Defense Defense, on the other hand can use the total shields and struct of every ship in the stack. :: A fleet is not considered fully Battle Ready unless each stack is fully populated. The percentage of Defense Readiness for each stack would be; :: Battle Readiness = Number of ships in stack / 3000 Note: Battle Readiness includes Combat Readiness. Fleet Battle speed No fleet will move faster than the slowest vessel. Ships with a MOV value of 7 will move no faster than the ship with a MOV of 3, if it is in the same fleet. This is a particular consideration when buying ships from the Trading Center (also known as the Auction House) and/or the Corporate Mall. Those faster ships are wasting Volume Units that would be better spent for shields and weapons. That said, there are distinct advantages to having fleets with high MOV values but gaining those values will cost in terms of defense or weapons power. The important thing is to pick a standard speed (5-8 recommended) and build all of your ships to that specification. Ratings and other Figures of Merit With all of the variations, fleets are difficult to rate on merit. The game lists ATK power, struct, shields, and storage but that isn't the whole story. The better data would be Readiness and that's more an internal measurement that is less useful for determining relative values that could compare two fleets. Commanders Commanders are very important to a fleet. While a commander's star ranking and its impact on Effective Stack may stand prominent as the obvious reason for having a Star Commander, their skill level is also important and is not inconsequential. The salient skill levels depend on the composition of the fleet be it Battleships, Cruisers, or Frigates. The Commander must be at least a B'' skill level (Driver's License, if you will) for each vessel type used in the fleet. A ''B skill level is neutral, with neither bonus or detriment to the fleet. Flagships, based on Battleship hulls like the Black Hole or any Humaroid Flagship, are best commanded with high Battleship Skills. The Independence, currently the only Flagship based on a Cruiser, is better commanded with high skills in Cruisers. If both ship types are used in the same fleet then the minimally competent commander is one that is rated at least B'' in both Cruisers and Battleships. :: Equally important are skills with the weapons type assigned to the fleet, be it Guns, Beams, Missiles, or Fighters. As with the driver's license, a rating of ''B or better is desired. However, unlike the driver's license, multiple weapons types, even in the same fleet are strongly deprecated (discouraged), due to mutual exclusion issues. Ergo, only a single skill level, depending on the fleet weapons type, is required. :: You can use an existing Commander that is normally deficient in such skill ratings by enhancing that commander with gems. Notably, Battleship and Cruiser Diamonds of level III or better, with a weapons diamond of levels III or better. Even Common Commanders may be assigned Diamonds. However, skill diamonds are expensive. The only way to get them in-game is to buy them with Mall Points and it takes 256 skill diamonds to merge into a Level V'' diamond. It is considered to be more cost-effective to have a set of the approriate level ''III-''V'' diamonds assigned to each fleet, which you assign to the Commander during commissioning. That said, Commanders may only have a maximum of three diamonds. Practically, this would limit a fleet design to two ship types and a single weapons type, unless the commander already has a relevent ship or weapons rating of B'' or better. In which case another skill diamond may be substituted, such as an additional ship type rating (Frigate or even an EXP diamond). While Commanders may have other skills and attributes, they are considered incidental to this discussion. 'Formation Types''' *Phalanx - Specific Formations *Stronghold - A variation on the Phalanx Ship Design types *Meat Shield - No offence, pure defense *Tanks - low offence, heavy defense * Head - The Flagship, Nose Gunner, or heavy Tank stack *Core - General combat, balanced offence and defense *Glass Cannon - Maximum offence, minimal defense. * Tail - More bias towards ATK but more DEF than a Glass Cannon. *Deadly Scouts - No offence, no defense, little movement Category:Fleet Design Category:Ship Design